Robin Walker: Like my hon. Friend the Member for Tewkesbury (Mr Robertson), my constituency has been very heavily affected by the flooding on the River Severn. Although that has not been going on for as long as the flooding in the Somerset levels, it has been spectacular and done much damage. To give an example of the scale of the flooding, this afternoon, the gauge at Worcester stands at 1.4 metres. Just a couple of weeks ago, it was 5.5 metres. The Environment Agency estimated that 518 cubic metres of water per second was trying, and often unfortunately failing, to pass under Worcester’s central bridge.
	I welcome the debate and much of the motion, particularly the fact that it thanks the emergency and statutory services for the fantastic work that they did. My hon. Friend the Member for Winchester (Steve Brine) mentioned the Pitt review’s recommendation on co-ordination between statutory and emergency services. What I have seen in Worcester in the past couple of weeks in terms of co-ordination has been a model that others could learn from.
	Two weeks ago on Monday, I was fortunate to attend a silver command meeting at Worcestershire county council and to witness at first hand all those organisations working together. I apologise if I miss out any of the people in the room at the time, but West Mercia police played a fantastic co-ordinating role. They arranged special patrols to areas that were cut off by the floods and oversaw that effort superbly. The Hereford and
	Worcester fire and rescue service also did a magnificent job. Incidentally, in contrast to some comments made by Opposition Members about fire services not being well placed to provide services, the Hereford and Worcester fire and rescue service told me that it was better equipped and trained for water rescue during these floods than in 2007, when floods hit Worcester severely.
	We have also seen fantastic work by the West Midlands ambulance service and the Environment Agency. Like my hon. Friend the Member for Winchester, I acknowledge that in some areas the agency has been somewhat controversial. In Worcestershire, however, there has been universal acclaim for the agency’s round-the-clock work. Dafydd Evans has been very helpful in keeping me informed. Dave Throup has been upheld as some kind of superhero. He now has a Twitter following of about 1,800—the Dave Throup fan club. That is a celebration not just of his superhuman efforts, but of all those who have worked very hard during the floods. I salute them all.
	Worcester county council put huge effort into keeping the city open for business and pushing to get the bridge reopened as soon as humanly possible. People were doing that in the silver command meeting that I attended. However, sadly, it had to be closed again as the river rose to record highs. Whereas in previous floods, when our bridge was closed, we had to call in aid from the military, who drove their vehicles through the floods to keep the city tied together, the council was able in this instance to run a successful bus service. The buses drove through the floods on New road, which cut off the main city bridge, and kept the two sides of the city tied together. That won great acclaim from city centre businesses. It helped loads of people to get to work, children to get to school and made a big difference. The staff worked almost around the clock and in appalling weather conditions as the rain came down. I pay tribute to them.
	Keeping the city open for business was a key priority throughout, and I acclaim the work of the business improvement district in Worcester, which ran a successful open for business campaign. Indeed, I am willing to commend the Labour mayor in the city for her work in supporting that campaign. That was positive, although, as I will come to, Labour in Worcester has slightly shot itself in the foot in its efforts since to support the campaign.
	I want to mention the military support that we had in Worcester, which arrived while I was in the city. I was pleased, particularly as the Parliamentary Private Secretary to the Minister of State, Northern Ireland Office, to be able to welcome the 1st Battalion the Royal Irish Regiment when it came to the city. The regiment showed fantastic professionalism and excellent co-ordination with the civil authorities. I was particularly pleased yesterday to receive a very impressive letter from the regiment’s commanding officer saying how impressed they had been by the overall efforts they had seen. It would also be remiss of me not to mention the local media, who did a fantastic job in keeping people informed in Worcester.
	I welcome the fact that the Government are trying to help those people whose homes have been flooded. There are about 40 such homes in my constituency, and for those people, the floods are tragic and terrible. The number is much smaller than it was in 2007, however, and we should welcome the fact that the flood defences
	have made a significant difference, especially the £1 million defences on Hylton road, which have protected a large number of homes and businesses in Worcester.
	Unfortunately, there have been reports of sewage in the flood water in residential areas of my constituency. When we think about resilience, we should also look at the sewerage systems, particularly in cities such as Worcester, to ensure that they have sufficient capacity and that we do not find sewage in river flood water in the future. We need to work with Severn Trent Water on that challenge.
	We need to look at resilience in relation to transport. I have mentioned the fact that the Worcester bridge has been closed on several occasions. Our university will soon propose exciting plans for new pedestrian access across the River Severn using disused railway viaducts. They would be a lot cheaper than some of the alternative road plans, and I recommend that the Government look into funding them as part of the resilience programme.
	I welcome the fact that the Government have given business rate rebates to many of the businesses affected by the floods. There is also an extra £10 million for businesses that were not flooded but that were otherwise affected. I am concerned that a lot of businesses will have been affected in that way, and I hope that that amount can be increased in the future.
	Having praised all the statutory services and my local councils, I am very concerned that the Labour-led city council in Worcester voted last night to put up parking charges very substantially. This will hit the high street at a time when it really should be focusing on recovery. It is absolutely the wrong thing to do, and it will undermine so much of the good work that the council has done in recent weeks to show that the city is open for business. I hope that it will recognise the great cross-party work that has been done recently to keep things moving, and that it will rethink that decision.